Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Power Outage Stalls Interop Temporarily at MGM Grand Las Vegas

The thing about power outages is that they are unexpected, for the most part, and can create a quick and widespread sense of panic or, at the very least, uncertainty. For instance, when power went out this afternoon at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, conference participants quickly began wondering what had happened and how long they would be without power. Laptops, of course, will run for a while, depending on your activities and hardware specs, but other equipment is out of action for the time being.

So, what if you had a portable power protection and backup system in place at your booth space? You could remain operational while your co-exhibitors are in the dark, literally. Imagine being the only exhibitor with power, even for a short period.

Of course, it's such a random and infrequent scenario, but that's the nature of an outage, which is why businesses would be wise to invest in power protection systems in their offices, for multiple reasons in this case. Not only would it allow for business continuity in the short term (depending on the specs of the UPS), but would also protect hardware and data by allowing for proper shutdown of non-essential equipment to conserve power for critical network components.

For frequent conference or other event participants – anyone who needs to set up equipment on a recurring basis at remote locations – portable UPS systems are also a solid strategy. It’s true, the odds of an outage are slim but, as today’s events show, you can’t always play the odds, especially in Las Vegas. But, even if you never experience an outage while at an event, power surges are more frequent, especially when you have so much equipment connected to circuits. Protecting your equipment can mean the difference between business wins and losses.

The outage at Interop (News - Alert) was short-lived and things are back to normal and, judging from the social media posts, most folks in attendance got a good chuckle at MGM’s expense, without much damage. But, there is always the possibility, and there is certainly no question the excitement caused more frustration than necessary.

This White Paper provides statistics and information about the cost of downtime related to remote equipment, and how organizations can benefit from including remote power management products (IP-addressable PDUs) in their power protection strategy.